Gata Kamsky, who stunned the chess world 12 years ago when he played Anatoly Karpov for the FIDE World Championship, is poised to make another run at the title.

Kamsky, 33, won the recently concluded World Cup by defeating, in a series of matches, fellow Grandmasters Ahmed Adly, Boris Avrukh, Kiril Georgiev, Peter Svidler, Rusian Ponomariov, Magnus Carlsen, and Alexei Shirov. And he did so without losing a single game in any of the matches.

Kamsky will now face a former FIDE World Champion, Bulgarian Veselin Topalov later this year in a semi-final match for the 2009 World Championship. The winner of the semi-final match will face the winner of the 2008 World Championship competition, either current World Champion Viswanathan Anand or former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik.

Topalov is currently ranked third in the World behind Anand and Kramnik. Kamsky is ranked 15th.

Details for the match, scheduled for the fall of 2008, are yet to be determined. However, the Bulgarian Chess Federation is rumored to have submitted a contingency bid, which would give Topalov a decided advantage, if accepted.

Kamsky, in a post-World Cup interview, credits his second, former World Junior Champion Emil Sutovsky, in assisting him with his extensive preparations for the World Cup. Kamsky intends to continue working with Sutovsky between now and the match with Topalov. This will require financial support, and to that end, his manager (and step-mother!) Bella Kamsky is seeking to establish a foundation to garner contributions to aid Gata. This will ensure Gata’s full attention is devoted to his preparations.

Details for fund raising efforts will be posted to the USCF website when they become available, or you can contact the USCF for the latest information.